(ANSA) - SAN PAOLO, 02 OCT - Seats open in Brazil.
The ballot boxes opened at around 8.00 am (Brasilia time) in 5,570 cities across the country and in 181 locations abroad, where around 156 million voters are expected.
Voting is mandatory for all citizens between 18 and 70 years old.
In addition to the next President of the Republic (39th), federal and state deputies, senators and governors of the 26 states and of the District of Brasilia will also be elected, for over 29,200 candidates, with 1.8 million respondents at work.
The system is the majority one: to be elected, the candidate must obtain more than 50% of the total votes, otherwise the ballot will take place, scheduled for October 30th.
The leader of the Brazilian left, Luiz Inácio Lula daSilva (Pt) arrives in the presidential elections with the possibility of winning the elections in the first round, with 50% of the valid votes, against 36% of his main rival, the right-handed president, Jair Bolsonaro (Pl ), according to the latest survey by Datafolha, published yesterday, but it is necessary to remember the margin of error of at least 2% and many other unknowns that the surveys of voting intentions have already revealed in the past.
To avoid the "risk of political violence", the Cortesuprema (Stf) has banned the carrying of arms, and 500,000 units of the police are working to ensure security throughout the country.
Among the novelties of these elections there is also the unification of voting times throughout the country.
According to the Higher Electoral Tribunal (TSE), for the first time all seats will be open from 8am to 5pm local time, following the Brazilian timetable, with the calculation of the results starting at 5pm and expected before 8pm.
The Armed Forces will conduct a parallel count in real time on 385 urns.
A novelty introduced at pressing by Bolsonaro, skeptical about the reliability of electronic polling stations, in his opinion subject to fraud and at risk of hacker attacks.
An initiative that political observers look at with concern and suspicion, for fear of possible thrusting of democracy.
This is the country's ninth general election to be held since the end of the military dictatorship.
